Islation of Aldose Reductase Inhibitors from the Flowers of Chrysanthemum boreale

The methanol extract from the whole parts of the flowers of Chrysanthemum boreals was found to exhibit a significant inhibition of a rat lens aldose reductase (RLAR) activity in vitro. Bioassay guided systematic fractionation of the methanol extract led to the isolation of four flavonoids which were identified as acacetin (1), apigenin (II), luteolin (III) and linarin (IV). Compounds I-III were demonstrated to exhibit a significant inhibition of RLAR. Luteolin (II) was found to be the most potent AR inhibitor with $IC_{50}$ value of $5{\times}10^{-7}M$.